You'll have to talk to his assistant. You'll have to talk to his assistant.
On Friday Marisa and I set out to see that Boleyn movie, but were surprised to find the 7:45 showing at 19th St sold out, so we went to see Semi-Pro first. It's taking some dings from critics as well as, apparently, the less discerning public, but I dunno, I found it enjoyable enough. Much has been made of how derivative it is of other Will Ferrell vehicles, but while this character has the trademark unearned-confidence shtick, basketball owner/coach/player Jackie Moon is more of a consumate (albeit not particularly skilled) huckster than a pompous Ron Burgundy or cocky Ricky Bobby/Chaz Michael Michaels. The barrage of ridiculous publicity stunts diffuse some of the sports cliches -- which are there, but more in the background -- and Ferrell scores decent back-up parts from Will Arnett and Andrew Daly, Andy Richter, and Matt Walsh, plus a swell Tim Meadows cameo. It's less gonzo than the Ferrell/McKay comedies, but the (somewhat) greater degree of realism gives it a sort of run-down energy.
Granted, there are plenty of problems with the movie: the comic bits don't mesh particularly well with the serious moments (poor Maura Tierney has played so many downtrodden wives lately -- though admittedly, she's good at it); most of the other basketball players are shamelessly underdeveloped; and yeah, OK, I don't need to see Ferrell in a sports-related comedy ever again. But I laughed out loud a bunch. On the second-tier Ferrell beat, this one ranks somewhere below the ramshackle efficiency of Blades of Glory and somewhere above the ramshackle one-man-show of Kicking and Screaming. Say this for Ferrell: As far as mainstream comedians go, his less inspired efforts are generally much better than the corresponding weaker efforts of Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, or Jim Carrey. And Step Brothers looks like ridiculous fun.
Then we went to our not-quite-sold-out late show of The Other Boleyn Girl, which slips into the cracks between elegant period evocation and trashy histsploitation. Natalie Portman has some fun as Anne Boleyn; she gets to give devilish smiles and come-ons and then act nutty, generally indulging in agreeable and believable scenery-chewing. Scarlett Johansson, though, just wears the same slack-jawed expression of confusion that seems to be her default acting face when she doesn't have a decent script and/or director with better instructions (the shortlist, since she's made so many movies at such a young age: Ghost World, Lost in Translation, The Prestige, those Woody Allen movies, and her SNL apperances). The movie isn't exactly incompetent; it's more perfunctory, moving from scandal to betrayal at a decent but unthrilling pace. The lighting is neat. The camera loves Portman. The costumes are nice. It's just one of those movies that's only slightly more interesting than a summary of the story.
Marisa has details on our Saturday with Tim and company, making a movie at the Be Kind Rewind exhibit downtown -- and then watching it with Michel Gondry. I'm also writing a blog post about it for the L Magazine which I will put here when it is up and running. EDIT: And here it is.
Then Marisa and I went to see Charlie Bartlett. I thought I would be bothered by the degree to which this movie appears to knock off Rushmore, and don't get me wrong, it does and I was, but I spent more time thinking about how the problem with the Charlie Bartlett character is that he doesn't really make sense on his own; he only makes sense if you say "oh, he's kind of like Ferris Bueller, or Max Fischer from Rushmore." In other words, he's very clear in movie terms and near-nonsensical in real-world terms and once the movie has failed to make sense of its title character, the rest of it sort of nosedives from there, not much more believable than a John Hughes movie and less funny, despite some good moments. All of the performances are fine but to no avail.
After the movie, we headed uptown to Tom's to watch SNL with Tom, (non-Brooklyn) Maggie, Andrew, Mike, and Kate. It wasn't the Tina-led triumph of last week, but there weren't too many bad sketches and I really liked College for Excellence, the digital short, and the Boleyn girls thing. I also like how on the Dakota Fanning sketch, they basically make Fanning more and more intellectual, to the point where this hardly resembles the actual Dakota Fanning at all. I'm a big fan of impressions that start off close and wind up as their own insane thing. The next two hosts are Amy Adams and Jonah Hill. Hot damn.
Now it's Sunday and almost dinner time. Where did today go?
Granted, there are plenty of problems with the movie: the comic bits don't mesh particularly well with the serious moments (poor Maura Tierney has played so many downtrodden wives lately -- though admittedly, she's good at it); most of the other basketball players are shamelessly underdeveloped; and yeah, OK, I don't need to see Ferrell in a sports-related comedy ever again. But I laughed out loud a bunch. On the second-tier Ferrell beat, this one ranks somewhere below the ramshackle efficiency of Blades of Glory and somewhere above the ramshackle one-man-show of Kicking and Screaming. Say this for Ferrell: As far as mainstream comedians go, his less inspired efforts are generally much better than the corresponding weaker efforts of Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, or Jim Carrey. And Step Brothers looks like ridiculous fun.
Then we went to our not-quite-sold-out late show of The Other Boleyn Girl, which slips into the cracks between elegant period evocation and trashy histsploitation. Natalie Portman has some fun as Anne Boleyn; she gets to give devilish smiles and come-ons and then act nutty, generally indulging in agreeable and believable scenery-chewing. Scarlett Johansson, though, just wears the same slack-jawed expression of confusion that seems to be her default acting face when she doesn't have a decent script and/or director with better instructions (the shortlist, since she's made so many movies at such a young age: Ghost World, Lost in Translation, The Prestige, those Woody Allen movies, and her SNL apperances). The movie isn't exactly incompetent; it's more perfunctory, moving from scandal to betrayal at a decent but unthrilling pace. The lighting is neat. The camera loves Portman. The costumes are nice. It's just one of those movies that's only slightly more interesting than a summary of the story.
Marisa has details on our Saturday with Tim and company, making a movie at the Be Kind Rewind exhibit downtown -- and then watching it with Michel Gondry. I'm also writing a blog post about it for the L Magazine which I will put here when it is up and running. EDIT: And here it is.
Then Marisa and I went to see Charlie Bartlett. I thought I would be bothered by the degree to which this movie appears to knock off Rushmore, and don't get me wrong, it does and I was, but I spent more time thinking about how the problem with the Charlie Bartlett character is that he doesn't really make sense on his own; he only makes sense if you say "oh, he's kind of like Ferris Bueller, or Max Fischer from Rushmore." In other words, he's very clear in movie terms and near-nonsensical in real-world terms and once the movie has failed to make sense of its title character, the rest of it sort of nosedives from there, not much more believable than a John Hughes movie and less funny, despite some good moments. All of the performances are fine but to no avail.
After the movie, we headed uptown to Tom's to watch SNL with Tom, (non-Brooklyn) Maggie, Andrew, Mike, and Kate. It wasn't the Tina-led triumph of last week, but there weren't too many bad sketches and I really liked College for Excellence, the digital short, and the Boleyn girls thing. I also like how on the Dakota Fanning sketch, they basically make Fanning more and more intellectual, to the point where this hardly resembles the actual Dakota Fanning at all. I'm a big fan of impressions that start off close and wind up as their own insane thing. The next two hosts are Amy Adams and Jonah Hill. Hot damn.
Now it's Sunday and almost dinner time. Where did today go?